on the stardot forum it's solvable but I'm stumped. People say the solution is clever, original, cruel, funny. I'll put what little I have found in a spoiler if you want to have a go blind first.
The room description always seems the same. There is a 'move' counter on the right, which counts down each time you go in any direction, and the game ends when it hits zero. It then shows you a map - the start point is green, presumably the end point is red, and your current position in white. If you count (it's basically a 4x4 grid) the number of moves you had to start with is exactly the number of moves required to reach the exit. But obviously you have no idea which way you are supposed to go. Now - I've discovered by trial and error that you can type SHOW MAP to bring the map up, BUT this also uses a move from your counter, so you can no longer reach the exit. So I'm stuck there. You occasionally see various things (Jamis Buck (?), a white rabbit, a palimpsest) but nothing seems to help much, and the HINT just cycles through 'Hindsight is 20/20', 'Don't look back in anger' and 'who says you can't rewrite history' which also doesn't seem to help....

It would be possible to play in a BBC emulator which has save states to show the map and then reload back and follow the moves, but that clearly isn't the "right" solution.

I don't understand how this is something you could get sucked into in the first place. At first glance, you just go North, South, East or West and find yourself in identical places each time, and you might find a "palimpsest" or see someone called James Buck or a white rabbit on the way. I'm sure other stuff can happen, but there's nothing to really get you motivated to even find out. (I haven't read your spoiler yet.)

on the stardot forum it's solvable but I'm stumped. People say the solution is clever, original, cruel, funny. I'll put what little I have found in a spoiler if you want to have a go blind first.
The room description always seems the same. There is a 'move' counter on the right, which counts down each time you go in any direction, and the game ends when it hits zero. It then shows you a map - the start point is green, presumably the end point is red, and your current position in white. If you count (it's basically a 4x4 grid) the number of moves you had to start with is exactly the number of moves required to reach the exit. But obviously you have no idea which way you are supposed to go. Now - I've discovered by trial and error that you can type SHOW MAP to bring the map up, BUT this also uses a move from your counter, so you can no longer reach the exit. So I'm stuck there. You occasionally see various things (Jamis Buck (?), a white rabbit, a palimpsest) but nothing seems to help much, and the HINT just cycles through 'Hindsight is 20/20', 'Don't look back in anger' and 'who says you can't rewrite history' which also doesn't seem to help....

It would be possible to play in a BBC emulator which has save states to show the map and then reload back and follow the moves, but that clearly isn't the "right" solution.

It's 5x5 isn't it, rather than 4x4? Also the thing about exits in all directions is a lie. It makes it seem as if you can move anywhere but there's walls there, so often you're not moving when you think you are.

on the stardot forum it's solvable but I'm stumped. People say the solution is clever, original, cruel, funny. I'll put what little I have found in a spoiler if you want to have a go blind first.
The room description always seems the same. There is a 'move' counter on the right, which counts down each time you go in any direction, and the game ends when it hits zero. It then shows you a map - the start point is green, presumably the end point is red, and your current position in white. If you count (it's basically a 4x4 grid) the number of moves you had to start with is exactly the number of moves required to reach the exit. But obviously you have no idea which way you are supposed to go. Now - I've discovered by trial and error that you can type SHOW MAP to bring the map up, BUT this also uses a move from your counter, so you can no longer reach the exit. So I'm stuck there. You occasionally see various things (Jamis Buck (?), a white rabbit, a palimpsest) but nothing seems to help much, and the HINT just cycles through 'Hindsight is 20/20', 'Don't look back in anger' and 'who says you can't rewrite history' which also doesn't seem to help....

It would be possible to play in a BBC emulator which has save states to show the map and then reload back and follow the moves, but that clearly isn't the "right" solution.

It's 5x5 isn't it, rather than 4x4? Also the thing about exits in all directions is a lie. It makes it seem as if you can move anywhere but there's walls there, so often you're not moving when you think you are.

Yes, you're right.

What sucked me in was other people working out how to solve it and describing it as they did - made it sound like the kind of thing that would be right up my alley (or even that I would do myself). Had I just stumbled across it without that stardot thread, you're right, I would can it after a minute. (This goes for most 'puzzles' really - I always need some reassurance that the puzzle is sound, I would never stumble across a puzzle on the internet and spend hours on it because the answer might be shit.)

Yeah I agree Jon - the "omg it's so satisfying when you work it out, and so clever and unique" vague posts did intrigue me. But I know I'm no Graeme. I can't solve this, but I look forward to one of you explaining how it's done and I'll enjoy that twist vicariously.

Yeah it's okay actually. I was possibly a bit dismissive in that post (I was more just being a dick in the sense of "I know the answer and I'm not going to tell you"), it's quite cute, and once you know it, it does make you laugh and you kick yourself. What I also quite enjoyed is that the implementation on the BBC Micro makes it work especially well (I had a BBC as a kid so I get a lot of nostalgia value). That said, you don't need to know anything about the BBC Micro or anything like that to solve it, you're all - yes, even you Matt, capable of cracking this one.